Click to play videoAmritser, (Punjab): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh publicly welcomed proposals that General Musharraf had shared with the media on Kashmir. He repeated his desire to bond a treaty of peace, security and friendship with Pakistan.
At a public rally in Amritsar, Singh seemed to be picking up the thread of public diplomacy with Pakistan. He welcomed Pervez Musharraf's recent ideas as ‘new’ and called for an open-minded approach to normalise relations between the two countries.
“We welcome all ideas which contribute to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan,” Manmohan Singh said in his speech at Amritsar.
Musharraf had recently ruled out independence for Kashmir and hinted that Pakistan would be willing to give up its territorial claims over the region, if India and Pakistan arrived at a mutually acceptable solution.
The contours of such a settlement which include self governance and joint supervision were first fleshed out in April last year and are now being actively explored through the back channels.
In March this year, the PM proposed a peace and friendship treaty with Pakistan, which he repeated once again on Wednesday. Singh now hopes that Amritsar re-emerges as a trade hub with Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran—a vision that crucially requires peace between India and Pakistan.
While PM seems to be in an accommodative mood, General Musharraf had said in September in Brussels that it’s now India's turn to make concessions to Islamabad.
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